MySQL, Scheduled Events and Amazon RDS

This article explains how to enable SQL database scheduled events for the Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS). By default, Amazon does not allow one to create (in other words, to schedule) events. Events are SQL code intended to execute periodically or in future. The solution is quite similar my last article. One needs to provide the ‘event_scheduler’ parameter set to “ON” or “1”. Parameters are set by creating a new parameter group (or editing an existing one) and assigning this parameter group to the database instance.

Open the RDS web console.

Open the “Parameter Groups” tab.

If necessary, create a new Parameter Group. On the dialog, select the MySQL family compatible to your MySQL database version, give it a name and confirm.

Select the just created Parameter Group and issue “Edit Parameters”.

Look for the parameter ‘event_scheduler’ and set its value to “ON” or “1”.

Save the changes.

Open the “Instances” tab. Expand your MySQL instance and issue the “Instance Action” named “Modify”.

If you have not yet assigned the Parameter Group to your database instance, select the Parameter Group and enable “Apply Immediately”.